Limit Orders and Conditional Limit Orders give you more control by letting you set your own price targets. These order types are useful when you want to buy at a lower price, sell at a higher price, or protect yourself against sudden market swings.
What is a Limit Order?
A Limit Order executes a buy or sell only if the price you set is available. Orders not completed within 30 days are cancelled.
Buy Limit Order — you set a price below the current market price. If the market drops to your chosen price, your order will execute.
Sell Limit Order — you set a price above the current market price. If the market rises to your chosen price, your order will execute.
For example, if the current price of Bitcoin is $114,689 and you want to buy Bitcoin at $110,000, you can place a "Buy" Limit Order at that price. This means your order will only be filled if the market price drops below $110,000.
Similarly, if you want to sell Bitcoin at $120,000, you can place a "Sell" Limit Order at that price. This means your order will only be filled if the market price rises above $120,000.
This lets you "buy low" or "sell high" without needing to watch the market constantly.
What is a Limit Price?
The limit price means the order won't go through unless your set price is available.
What is a Conditional Limit Order?
A Conditional Limit Order only becomes active when it hits your trigger price, then executes at your set limit order price. Orders not completed within 30 days are cancelled.
Buy Conditional Limit Order — you set a trigger price higher than the current market price, and a limit price equal to or higher than the trigger price. If the market rises to your chosen price, your order will execute.
Sell Conditional Limit Order — you set a trigger price below the current market price, and a limit price equal to or lower than the trigger price. If the market falls to your chosen price, your order will execute.
For example, if the current price of Bitcoin is $113,000 and you want to buy Bitcoin as it starts rising, you can place a Buy Conditional Limit Order with a trigger price of $115,000 and a limit price of $116,000. This means that if the market price rises to $115,000, your order will be triggered and will only be filled if the price is $116,000 or lower.
Similarly, if the current price of Bitcoin is $114,000 and you want to sell Bitcoin to protect against losses, you can place a Sell Conditional Limit Order with a trigger price of $112,000 and a limit price of $110,000. This means that if the market price drops to $112,000, your order will be triggered and will only be filled if the price stays at or above $110,000.
What is a trigger price?
The trigger price means the order only starts once the trigger price is hit, and then it will only execute at your limit order price.
How can I place a Limit or Conditional Limit Order?
See "How to place a crypto trade on Retired.com" for the full step-by-step guide, including where you choose Limit or Conditional Limit as your order type.
Frequently Asked Questions
I placed an order request, what comes next?
You'll receive a confirmation message and email once your order request is successfully submitted as an open request. This means your order is now open, but it hasn't executed yet — execution only happens once your price conditions are met.
If your order can't be placed due to a system issue, you'll be notified immediately.
You can view your open orders in the Open Orders section of the Self-Trading page.
You'll receive email notifications if your order fills, partially fills, or expires.
When will my order request execute?
Execution occurs if and when the market reaches your specified price. Until then, your order is open but hasn't executed.
Execution is not guaranteed. Your order will only execute if the market meets your specified price conditions.
Orders can result in partial or unfilled amounts, and may not fill at the exact price you selected, based on factors such as your position in the queue relative to other orders or the volatile nature of cryptocurrency markets.
Can I cancel my order request?
Yes, you can cancel it any time before it's filled. When you cancel, the funds or assets that were being held for that order request are immediately released back to your available balance, so you can use them for another trade.
Can I change my order request?
Limit and Conditional Limit orders can't be edited once they've been placed. If you'd like to make changes to an existing open order request, cancel it and submit a new order request.
What happens to my funds used to place the Limit / Conditional Limit Order request?
When you place a Limit or Conditional Limit order, the required funds become locked until either the order executes or you cancel it. This ensures the money is available if and when your order executes. While your funds are locked, they can't be used for other trades or withdrawals.
If you want to use those funds for something else, you'll need to either:
Cancel your open order to free up the locked funds, or
Add more money to your account so you can place new trades without affecting your existing order.
How many order requests can I place / have open?
You can place as many Limit or Conditional Limit orders as your available funds permit, for the same or different assets, at different target prices and amounts.
What happens if the market touches my trigger price exactly?
If the market reaches your trigger price, even for a moment, your limit order activates. After that, it's just like a normal limit order waiting to be filled at your limit price or better.
Can I lose money using a Conditional Limit order?
You don't lose money just by placing the order. The risk is that if the market moves fast and skips your limit, your order doesn't fill — and the price might keep moving away from you.
Why didn't my Conditional Limit Order request fill?
There are a few reasons this could happen:
Your trigger price was reached, but the market moved past your limit price too quickly. Since a Conditional Limit order only fills at your limit price or better, if the market skips over it, the order stays unfilled.
Your trigger price was never reached at all, and the order expired.
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